


Tales from the Multiverse: High School Without the Musical

by JimberlyHopper



Series: Tales from the Multiverse [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Benny's Burgers, Beth Wildfire has a limp lol, Coca-Cola Product Placement, Gay Bashing, Gay Will Byers, Hangover, Hawkins National Laboratory, High School, Kinda, M/M, Mike Wheeler Being an Asshole, Music, Outing, Slurs, Steve and Dustin fight :((, The Party are split, Underage Drinking, Will Byers Has Powers, because #fuckbillyhargrove2020, because he needs somebody to relate to, because i dont think anyone has done that before, billy is still dead, chapter 7 is kinda tough though lol, dont care about his backstory we all hate big bill here, i find it hard to believe that nobody else was suspicious during s3, jimbo died in season 3 but he's back baby, murray lives in the russian base, oh yeah the byers still live in hawkins btw forgot to mention, robin comes out, so i added a character that was and watched the events of 308, the russians are back baby, the russians are involved again, they're ~17 years old, to will
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2021-01-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:15:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27565849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JimberlyHopper/pseuds/JimberlyHopper
Summary: Will comes out to Mike. It does not go well at all.Contains homophobic slurs and a pretty high amount of bad language. Stay tuned!
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Will Byers/Mike Wheeler
Series: Tales from the Multiverse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1712599
Comments: 40
Kudos: 76





	1. Ballroom Blitz

“I- I don’t get it.” Mike admitted.

“What’s there not to get, Mike?” Will asked, nerves quickly forming into anger. “I like men. I like dick and broad shoulders, not tits and whatever the fuck Eleven has down there! I don’t like girls, the closest I could ever get is a transgender woman-”

“Trans-…?” Mike started quietly.

“and even then it’s kinda in the middle because I don’t wanna be disrespectful to her by making her feel like a man! Jesus Christ, Mike, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to shout you just… frustrate me.” Will seemed to calm as Mike sat in thought for a moment.

“But Will, that’s… it’s not… normal.” Mike said, looking up at his oldest friend. Will’s world crumbled around him, but he took a deep breath and tried to remain calm.

“Okay. I see how it is, Mike. You don’t wanna be my friend because I’m gay. That’s fine. I get it. Who would want a friend like this anyway? You? Someone who has, by sheer luck, managed to get to the top of the social ladder? It’s already damaging enough to your reputation that you’re friends with the Zombie Boy, and now you’re gonna get slammed because you’re friends with the Zombie _Fag_ as well. Well don’t worry, Mike.” He stood up from Mike’s bed. “I won’t bother you anymore. I suppose I might as well tell you now, so here goes.” He sighs and goes silent for a moment as Mike stares, eyes wide with shock. “I like you. I _really_ like you. Chances are, I’m in love with you, but hey, what do I know? I’m just some stupid faggot.” He turned around and walked out of Mike’s bedroom, causing the latter to jump up and follow.

“Will, wait!”

“Wait for what Mike? Do you wanna actually insult me?”

“What about the Party?” Mike asked, stopping Will in his tracks just at the front door. He turned, fire in his eyes and stared straight into Mike’s eyes.

“I quit. Go get a new cleric.” He said simply, turning around and opening the door. Stepping out, he didn’t look back as Mike called his name once more.

“Will, don’t go! I-”

“Go fuck yourself Mike! I’ll see you on Monday.” Will shouted, waving his hand to the side and causing the door to shut. As a tear fell from his eye, he turned down the street and walked off

From his now empty and silent house, Mike watched as the door in front of him slammed with no contact at all. Tears dropped from his face as he stepped back. Running a hand through his hair, Mike dropped to the floor. “FUCK!” Echoed through the house as he sat, crying silently and ruminating on their words. An engine started outside and slowly faded into the distance as Will drove away. As he sat in silence, Mike’s sadness slowly turned to anger. Why is he crying over Will? It’s pretty clear that he’s an asshole and a _faggot_ , gross by the way. He should have kicked Will out of the Party in 1985, letting him stay for three more years was the kindest thing Mike had ever done for him, and for _what_? To be treated like shit? No, fuck Will.

Fuck that faggot.

**MONDAY**

“And the man at the back said ‘everyone attack’ and it turned into a Ballroom Blitz!” Brian Connolly sang through the stereo as Will turned the corner into the lot. “And the girl in the corner said ‘boy I wanna war-’” The music stopped as Will turned off his car. It was small and barely functioned, but it was his. His mom forked out a lot of cash for it, so he really appreciated everything about it. Opening the door, he was almost happy. Obviously he was now totally alone, didn’t even have Mike or the Party to help him out, but he was happy. Right until he stepped out of the car. As his head popped above the door, it was knocked back down by a full can of Coke. Will put a hand to where the can hit and winced in pain as he raised back up. Behind him, he could hear quiet murmurs of “nice shot” and “fuckin’ fag.” It was a bad start to the day, but he’d started days in worse ways, both at school and in an alternate dimension. Brushing it off, he closed the door to his car and locked it, pocketing the keys and making his way towards the building. Barely noticing the strange glances everyone was giving him, Will made it to his locker relatively unharmed, having no real problems until lunch, seeing as he encountered Max on the way to the cafeteria.

Quickly moving out of her slumped position in the corner, Max strode over to Will. Nowadays, Max was the member of the Party that Will got along best with, seeing as they both faced very similar crisises at the exact same time. So when she appeared at his side and asked him to talk privately for a moment, he knew it must be at least a little bit serious. Moving into a broom closet, Will sat down on an empty shelf, back bending uncomfortably to fit. Max kept standing as she shut the door and turned to him.

“Has anything happened today?” She asked.

“Well I got hit in the back of the head with a Coke can but nothing really out of the ordinary. Why?”

“They know, Will.”

“Know what?”

Max paused and lowered her voice, going softer. “Will, they _know_. They know about _you_.”

Will was confused for just a moment, then it dawned on him. “Oh shit. Oh shit, how much do they know?”

“Everything.”

“ _How much is everything_?”

“They know you’re gay, they know like dick Will! And…”

“And…?”

“They know you like Mike.”

“What? How did they find that ou……” he trailed off as his brain did the heavy lifting for a moment. “Mother fucker.” He muttered.

“What? Who did it?”

Will stood up without answering and burst out of the closet. Striding swiftly towards the cafeteria. Max followed behind him.

“Will, who did it? Will?” She was still being ignored as Will pushed the cafeteria doors open.

“Mike Wheeler!” He shouted, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. “Who the _fuck_ do you think you are?!”


	2. Monday Noon's Alright for Fighting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike and Will have an argument. Things do not go well.
> 
> Contains more homophobic slurs and some naughty language

“Mike Wheeler!” Will shouted, silencing the entire room. “Who the _fuck_ do you think you are?”

“Mike? _Mike_? _It was Mike_?” Max whispered from next to him.

“Byers! How’s it going, man?” Mike shouted in response, standing up from his bench with Lucas, Dustin and Eleven.

“Don’t do that you asshole! What made you think it was okay to share what I told you?”

“Well, you were so open with me, I figured you wouldn’t mind sharing with everyone else.”

“You have no right to share that and you know it!” Will accused, jabbing a finger at Mike and stepping closer. “I could easily get killed for that in this shithole town and you _willingly_ told people something private about me that I told you in confidence. Sure, it didn’t end the best, but I figured that you had some human decency left in that soulless husk of a body.”

“You know what Will, the risk is a part of the package when you choose to be a faggot like that.” Mike smirked, clearly enjoying on some level the pain that Will was in.

“It’s not a choice, Mike.” Max butted in. “It’s natural.”

“Is it, Max? Or is it gross and disgusting? I mean, there’s a reason that it’s been a crime for as long as civilised societies have existed, right? So surely it’s not natural.”

“Black people used to be in the same category, but you haven’t got a problem with Lucas!”

“Get out of here, dyke, this isn’t your argument.” Someone from the crowd butted in.

“It’s not yours either, dickwad!” She shouted back, turning her attention to the voice.

“You hurt me Mike! You might not like me now, but we were friends for _thirteen_ years! Has popularity changed you or was I just deluded by our friendship? Because from what I can see now, you are the biggest asshole I have ever met.”

“I may be an asshole, but at least I’m not a flamer, Will. At least I’m accepted. At least I’m normal.” Mike retorted. “So when are you gonna run off and cry, Will? Is it now, or when I say that I fucked your sister _last night_? You know, when her bed was creaking and she said she was having a nightmare? Not quite accurate, was it El?” He grinned wider than ever and turned to his girlfriend, only to be hit in the face with a plate full of slop.

“Screw you, Mike. Go find another girl to lie about.” She said, moving to stand with Will and Max. Mike’s face fell as Eleven left him in front of the entire school.

“That lie didn’t work out, did it?” Will laughed. Clearly, the rest of the people around were not so jovial. Mike and Will stared each other down before Mike charged him, tackling him to the floor. The pair tussled as Max and Eleven attempted to pull them apart, but it was no use. In a cry for assistance, Mike told those around to help him, and that they did. As if it was straight out of a movie, the entire cafeteria piled on Will and started to deliver blow after blow. Despite Max and Eleven trying their best to stop them, alongside help from Dustin and Lucas, it was no use. The most devastating attack on a student since 1964 had begun.

Jonathan, who was working as the school as a part-time custodian just after finishing college, walked in on the commotion. He unplugged his headphones and stared in awe as some poor kid was being destroyed in the middle. Saturday Nights Alright for Fighting blared out of his shitty speaker as he realised the mop of hair that kept rising and falling. “Hey! Hey! What the fuck are you doing?” He shouted, running into the crowd and pushing away students to get to his brother. By the time he’d reached the centre his brother was on the floor, barely able to fight back. Jonathan dropped to his knees and put a hand to Will’s chest. Good, he was still breathing, but people were still attacking him, alongside Jonathan himself now. As Jonathan attempted to stop people, to calm them with the help of Max, El, Dustin and Lucas, but it didn’t work. Just as he turned back to Will, he watched a foot get planted into his face.

So Will was still unconscious, Mike had split up the Party, and his brother faced expulsion for starting a fight, while Mike himself faced nothing. Needless to say, Jonathan was pissed. Will had told him, Eleven and their parents his deepest secret in confidence a few days earlier and now, from what he could gather from a hysterical Eleven and Max, he’d told Mike and been brutally beaten for it. Jonathan was ready to murder as Will lay unconscious on the Byers couch, face covered in dried blood and nose looking like a bulldog. Hopper had come home early after hearing about the accident, providing as much medical care as he could to help out while Joyce was speeding back from Indianapolis. The four sat in silence as Will breathed in and out. Slow, even breaths that they can imagine would be immensely painful were he awake. But he wasn’t awake. And all of them couldn’t help but feel at least somewhat guilty. Jonathan hadn’t been able to help his brother during the fight, Max had let her best friend get into trouble. Eleven felt she had failed as a sister by being with Mike when he had this hate bottled up inside, and Hopper felt he had failed as a cop to bring some form of tolerance to the town of Hawkins. So they all were pretty down in the dumps to say the least. And they stayed down in the dumps.

And there they remained.

For hours.

And hours.

Eleven was asleep on the floor under a haphazardly placed blanket alongside Max, who had fallen asleep shortly afterwards, when Joyce walked into the door. “Is he okay?” She whispered. Hopper shrugged.

“Kid hasn’t opened his eyes since lunch.”

“God, Hop, it’s been 9 hours since his lunch period started.” She said, voice shaking. “What if it kills him? You know he hasn’t been the same since…”

“Yes, Joyce, I know. All we can do is hope for now. Jonathan, Joyce.” He turned to them. “Go get some shut-eye. I’ll keep an eye on him.” He said with a smile and confidence that didn’t match his worried eyes. Joyce sighed and agreed, kissing his cheek with a “goodnight” before going to their room. Jonathan left with an apprehensive wave, but left nonetheless. Now all that was left to do was wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so i just posted chapter 1 but i got bored and wrote chapter 2 as well so here you go.


	3. Separate Ways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will wakes up, gets paid a visit and experiments. Dustin and Steve face a hurdle
> 
> No homophobic slurs this chapter, unless I've subconsciously added one which I doubt. Some swearing though lol

It was another few hours before Will opened his eyes again; meaning Hop wasn’t going to get much sleep before work. By the time his surrogate son had awoken the chief was ready to deliver him to the morgue, had it not been for the strained breaths he kept hearing he probably would have. Sitting there, he watched eyelashes weakly open in front of him, followed by a stereotypical groan like he was watching some shitty movie. Hopper moved over as gently as he could to be next to Will, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Hey kid.” He said, voice low so as to not wake anyone. “You okay?”

“No.” Will grumbled, laughing for a moment before groaning in pain. Hopper laughed a moment too.

“You’ve been out for a while now, gonna need to check for brain trauma at some point soon.”

“Oh God was the beating that bad?”

“Just wait until you see a mirror.” Hopper deadpanned. “I’ve set an appointment tomorrow with Doctor Owens, he knows your brain better than anyone so he’ll know if something’s wrong.”

“Okay. Where’s everyone else?” He asked, scanning the room without moving too much.

“Asleep. Your mom, brother and sister are in their rooms, and Max is with El. I’d suggest I go and get them but it’s around 3am and they’d probably appreciate some sleep after the day they’ve just had.”

“Wow I really was out for a while.” Will laughed again followed by another groan. “It goes without saying, but you can go sleep now, you’ve got work tomorrow and some sleep is better than none.”

“You sure? It’s a lonely morning at 3am when you’re in that sort of shape.”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’ve survived worse.”

“Okay, but let me know if you need anything, alright?”

“You got it, dad.” Will smiled, signalling Hopper to go to bed.

An hour later, Will was still awake and in agonising pain, so he figured he’d take the time to practice something he’d recently discovered. Closing his eyes and concentrating, he heard as the fridge popped open, followed by the shuffling of items and then the closing of the fridge. As he felt something cold press into his hand and something warm trickle down his top lip, he knew it had worked. Opening his eyes, he wiped the blood from his nose and looked down at the Coke can in his hand. It had worked.

**TUESDAY**

After his family had woken up, they’d coddled Will, made sure he was okay, which he told them he was. Eventually, he’d even managed to convince his parents that they should still go to work, _and_ convince El and Max to go into school, leaving just him and Jonathan around the house for the day as he recovered. They couldn’t afford to pay for hospital bills, so the day was full of anxiety revolving around Will’s health, though that was to be expected after what happened the previous day. The pair spent the day talking, listening to music and even ended up watching Back to the Future. Which was when the day went from fine to shit.

After school, Eleven had some stupid activity, so she was coming home late, and Max was meant to be driving her back, so she’d be late too. That meant that they did not expect anyone at the door within 20 minutes of the end of the day, yet they had two people. Jonathan opened the door and allowed the visitors inside, meaning Will had no choice in the matter of letting Dustin and Lucas in. He smiled as they walked in, but they were not smiling back. Instead, they looked nervous.

“Will, we need to talk.” Lucas started.

“What’s up?”

“It’s Mike.”

“We’re gonna stick by him.” Dustin tore off the bandaid. Jonathan and Will’s faces fell, and they shouted in unison.

“ _What_!?”

“Not that we support what he did!” Lucas clarified, “It’s just, we’ve stepped up in the social hierarchy thanks to him, and we can’t lose that.”

“ _But_ , we are gonna talk to him about it, try and help out, get him to see a less homophobic side.”

“I don’t care, get out of my house.” Will said, fully serious.

“Yeah that’s reasonable. Hope you get better soon man.” Dustin said with a feeble smile.

“Go fuck yourself.” Will called as they walked out of the house.

“Jesus Christ, your friends are awful.” Jonathan joked to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, I guess they are.”

“But hey, at least they’re _trying_ to help.”

“It’s not appreciated.”

**ON THE WAY TO WORK**

“So Mike got two dozen people to beat Will up?” Steve asked Dustin as they drove to Family Video, Separate Ways by Journey blaring from the radio.

“…yeah.” Dustin said quietly.

“Right after outing him to the entire school?”

“…yeah.” He repeated.

“And you think that _Mike_ is the person you should side with?”

“I don’t side with him, I just… think I should stay with him. Me and Lucas have got a decent reputation now, and we don’t wanna lose that.”

The car came to a halt.

“You’re abandoning your friend who has been humiliated and beaten by two dozen bigger guys to save your _social status_? Dude, what have I told you about that stuff? It’s all bullshit!”

“I know, but I spent so long at the bottom that I wanna stay at the top.”

“At the cost of Will?”

“We’re trying to fix what happened to Will by staying with Mike.”

“You know, I once knew a kid who was willing to travel to another dimension to make sure his friend was okay, and now you won’t risk the _social status_ to help him out?”

Dustin fell silent.

“Get out of my car, Dustin.”

“What?”

“I said, get out of my car.”

“What about work?”

“Someone will cover for you.”

Dustin opened the door and reluctantly stepped out. As Steve reached over to close the door, he gave one final note. “Sort your life out Henderson. Sort it out.” And sped off to Family Video, leaving Dustin alone in the middle of Hawkins.

The Party and it’s closest extension had officially split. And Dustin didn’t even have Steve to rely on anymore. This was fucked.


	4. Just The Way You Aren't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will and Steve talk. Meanwhile, an old friend prepares for a reunion.
> 
> No slurs, some language.
> 
> Even more dialogue heavy than previous chapters lol

Steve had broken apart from the Party and his closest ally, Dustin. This was fucked. As he turned into the parking lot next to the newly restored Palace, he sighed, looking up to see Robin in the doorway, confusion on her face. They locked eyes and she immediately realised that something had happened. Steve opened the door. He stepped out and closed it, locking it behind. By the time he was in the building, Robin was already talking in his ear.

“What happened? Where’s Dustin?”

“We had a fight.”

“What do you mean you had a fight? Is he not coming in?”

“He’s taking the day off.”

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything, Rob, Dustin is the one that’s screwed up.”

“He’s like five years younger than you, don’t blame it all on him.”

“I don’t think _any_ of the blame is to be put on me, Robin. Can we go to a back room? I don’t wanna talk about it when people can walk in.”

“A-” Robin paused. “Oh shit is it…?”

“What?” Steve asked, stopping just before hopping over the counter. “ _Oh_ , no, no. It’s not _that_ , but it’s still sensitive.”

Robin huffed. “Fine, put up the sign.” Steve responded with a smile, jumping over the counter and putting up a sign saying to ring for assistance, alongside a crappy bell.

“Thanks.” He opened the door to the back and ushered Robin in, closing it as soon as she was in.

“Right, what the hell happened?”

“Did you hear about what happened to Will?”

“No?”

“Mike outed him to the entire fuckin’ school.”

Robin’s face fell. “ _What_?”

“Mike _outed_ Will. And then two dozen people beat him into unconsciousness.”

“Holy shit, mother fucker.”

“Yeah, I felt the same. But guess what Henderson told me on the way to work.”

“I don’t know, something stupid?”

“Go on.”

“He’s siding with Mike?” Robin scoffed. Steve did not laugh. “Wait. No. _No_.”

Steve nodded.

“Okay. You can blame some of it on him. And the rest on Mike.”

“That’s reasonable.”

“Do you know if he’s okay?”

“Who, Dustin? I don’t care, he’s an asshole.”

“No, dingus.” Robin looked him in the eye. “ _Will_.”

“Oh. I only found out in the car so haven’t had the opportunity to see.”

“Call him, I’ll run the shop. God knows we don’t need two employees let alone three. And call _me_ if you need to tap out.”

“Gotcha.”

“Have fun Stevie.” Robin said, walking back out to the counter. Steve sighed again and moved to pick up the phone, dialling the Hopper-Byers home.

**THE HOPPER-BYERS HOME**

It had been a good couple of hours since Dustin and Lucas had delivered the bad news. Since then, Will had been able to walk with only a little bit of pain in his legs and chest, and with only mild nausea. So recovery was going well. That meant that, when the phone rang later in the day, Will was able to pause Billy Joel’s Just the Way You Are and move to get it himself.

“Hopper-Byers household this is Will speaking.” He said, wincing slightly as he leaned onto the wall.

“Hey Will, it’s Steve. I heard about what happened and, uh, I wanted to check in.”

“Oh, thanks Steve. I’m still in a lot of pain generally.”

“Shit. Did they get you bad?”

“Oh yeah, I was out for, like 15 hours.” Will laughed softly.

“How’re you doing in the head? I know shit like this must be tough.”

Will hesitated. “I don’t know. I’m not sure I’ve processed it yet. Right now I’m fine but I imagine it’s probably gonna get at least a little bit harder.”

“Yeah.” Steve paused. “Listen, man, I’m not very good at this at all, but Robin is here if you wanna speak to her? She’s much better with this than me.”

“Aren’t you meant to be on a shift with her and Dustin right now?”

“We’re tag teaming. And, uh, Henderson is at home. I heard about him coming by today, I’m really sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it, he meant well, even if he’s a total asshole.”

“So, Robin?”

“Yeah, why not. Can’t be much worse than you.”

Steve chuckled. “Sure. She’ll be two seconds.”

And within two seconds, Robin was on the phone.

“What’s happening?”

“Nothing, Steve just said you’d probably be better to talk to about my… situation.”

“Ah. _Ah_. I see. How long have you got?”

“Until my legs give out in a few minutes.”

“That bad?”

“You aren’t the first to ask.”

“Sorry.”

“Not your fault.”

A pause.

“I know why Steve wanted me to talk to you.” She said, breaking the silence.

“Why’s that?”

“Because you might not know it, but we’re pretty similar.”

“Are we? Because last I checked I was the only one who went to another dimen- _ooohhhhh_.” The realisation came like a ton of bricks onto his head. He turned to his brother, who was listening in and waved him off, mouthing the word ‘private.’ Jonathan grimaced, fearing the worst, and left. Will returned in a hush tone. “You…?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.”

Will laughed at the echo of his words. “Did anything like this happen to you?”

“No. I mean, I got bullied a bit, people called me names but nobody knows.”

“Except Steve.”

“Except Steve. I told him at Starcourt after he confessed his undying love for me.”

Will audibly cringed at that. “Oh God! That must’ve been so… ugh.”

“Nah, he’s a good friend. I mean, there’s a reason the two of us are still friends now, three years on.”

“I guess so.” Will trailed off before continuing. “I’m scared, Robin. The whole town knows now, what the hell am I meant to do?”

“You’ve got the chief on your side haven’t you? He’ll protect you.”

“He will, but he can’t always help. I can’t spend the next couple years of my life constantly being shit on for who I am. And who knows what’ll happen _if_ I ever get out.”

“It’s not an if, Will. It’s a when. The fact of the matter is this is a backwards town with backwards morals and they won’t accept you. But you’re too strong to be beaten by this shithole. You survived a week in an alternate dimension with nobody to help while you were being hunted down by the scariest monster anyone has ever seen! You got possessed and still managed to firework the thing that possessed you _to death_ eight months later! You’re not a loser, Will. You never have been. And I know that nothing in this town will phase you as long as you know that.”

A tear dropped from Will’s eye.

“Thanks Robin. Send Steve my love.”

“Wait, how’d all this come about anyway?”

“Oh, I came out to Mike, said I liked him when he reacted badly and then left while he tried to stop me.”

“He tried to stop you?”

“Yeah, wanted to tell me something. I can’t imagine it was something overly nice.”

“Riight. I hope you get better Will.”

“So do I. I’ll come see you when I am, alright?”

“You got it.”

Robin ended the call.

**FAMILY VIDEO**

“Steve, close down shop.”

“Robin, we can’t.”

“Say it’s a family emergency.” She said, pulling off her shitty vest with a logo on. Steve sighed and grabbed a piece of paper, writing “ _Had to leave, family emergencies_ ” on it in marker. He placed it on the front desk and followed Robin out of the store, quickly locking it behind him. He pulled out his keys and unlocked his car, allowing Robin to jump in.

“Where are we going?” Steve asked, disgruntled.

Robin turned to him, face dead serious. “We’re going to visit Mike.”

“ _What_?!”

**KAMCHATKA**

From the other end of the radio, a familiar voice came through.

“Did you pick up any conclusive evidence?”

Through his thick accent, a lone Russian responded. “After he got knocked out, windows were supposedly shattered all through the school. It’s not certain but it’s incredibly likely.”

The voice sighed. “Okay. I’ll send them in.”

“Are you sure? He may be dangerous.”

“They always are.”

“Well. Good luck Doctor…?”

“Brenner. Doctor Martin Brenner.”

The radio signal cut out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He's back.


	5. Under Pressure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We catch up with the rest of our cast. Hopper has a meeting, Mike talks with Robin and Steve, Lucas issues an apology, El and Max have a very short conversation in the car and Murray gets a message from a friend. As we catch up, a mystery lurks in Hawkins. Everyone must try and figure out what the fuck is going on.
> 
> Liberal use of the word "fuck" and other fun swears.

Mike was alone in the house. His parents had extended their visit to Nancy by an extra week, so he’d be alone for a good while. The house was silent as he wandered around aimlessly. The kitchen was empty. The living room was empty. The basement was empty. His footsteps were the only, quiet sounds in the building, until three loud bangs shook the house. Following the sound, Mike stood at the front door. He sighed and put his head against it.

“We know you’re in there, Wheeler.” Steve’s voice said from the other side. Mike looked up, but didn’t open the door.

“What do you want, Steve?”

“Don’t ask me, I’m here for the ride. Robin’s the one that wants to talk.”

Mike furrowed his brows. “Robin?”

“Hey Mike, open the door.” Robin responded.

“Did Will send you?”

“No. Did you want him to?”

“No.”

“Did you want him to come?”

Mike didn’t respond. Instead, he slowly opened the door and looked at the two. “Can we do this in my car?”

“What? Why?” Steve asked.

“I don’t wanna talk about it… here.” Mike motioned to the house he was in. Robin sighed and nodded, moving towards Nancy’s old car, which had recently become Mikes. Mike moved inside, grabbed his car keys, and came back out, motioning for Steve and Robin to get in the middle row of seats while he drove. As he pulled out of the driveway and turned onto the road, Mike knew he had a long night ahead of him.

**HAWKINS POLICE STATION**

“Chief, there’s a, uh, Beth Wildfire here for ya!” Powell shouted. Hopper groaned and got up from his desk, walking into the reception, where Powell and the presumed Beth were sat alone.

“What’s up?”

“I don’t know, she’s refusing to tell me, says it’s important that the chief of police is the only one that knows.” Powell shrugged and Hopper sighed, motioning for Beth to follow him to his office. She did, and only limped slightly as she walked in. The pair sat down and Hopper leant on his elbows. “Okay, what’s so secret then?”

“I have reason to believe that there are Russians in Hawkins again.”

“What do you mean ‘ _again_ ’?” Hopper went from indifferent to worried within a moment. Beth sighed.

“I was at Starcourt on July 4th. I watched what really happened that night, at least most of it. Snuck away when it was getting dangerous.”

“What do you mean you were at Starcourt?”

“I watched that spider-thing tear the place apart.”

“And you never told anyone?”

“I’d get locked up if I did, for insanity or breaching the peace. But I watched Mrs Byers and that bald guy walk out of that garage thing afterwards and they were dressed as Russians.”

“And why are you telling me this?”

“Because you went down there too. And you disappeared for, like, two years and came back out of nowhere with a massive beard.”

Hopper was silent.

“And I’ve seen people acting suspicious. The same way people were acting suspicious around town a couple of years ago when Starcourt was open. Knowing this town’s fucked history, I doubt the pair are unrelated.”

Hopper hummed and contemplated everything he’d just been told. With a drawn out sigh, he got to his feet. “Okay. Let’s go.”

“Let’s go what?”

“Let’s go stake out for suspicious Russians in Hawkins, obviously.”

“Now?”

“Do you have anything better to do?”

Beth hesitated. “Okay. Let’s go.”

“Great.”

**MELVALD’S GENERAL STORE**

Lucas walked into the store downtrodden, only mildly uplifted as he heard Queen and Bowie quietly through a radio by the cash register. Unfortunately, his spirits fell as he recognised Joyce’s face next to it. He quietly moved to the cards section and started looking for something that fit his needs, followed shortly by the worst thing that could have possibly happened.

“Looking for anything specific?” Joyce asked with a smile. Lucas tried to act natural.

“Yeah, an apology card?” He said, not at all natural.

“Oooh I don’t know if we have any of those, Lucas. What’s the occasion?” She chuckled to herself.

Lucas gulped.

“I hurt Will.”

The smile fell from her face.

“Dustin and I sided with Mike to try and talk some sense into him, and we made a mistake and told Will. I don’t think he likes us anymore.” He explained further. Joyce sighed.

“Lucas, you’re an idiot.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“But that doesn’t mean that you’re a bad person. What you have just done to my son is awful and I should kill you on the spot, but after everything you’ve all been through I don’t blame you. Not entirely at least. You have good intentions, and that’s what matters, even if I want to strangle you. Now, what kind of card are you thinking?”

Lucas looked up from his feet and stared Joyce in the eyes. A tear fell down his cheek as they looked at each other. He sniffed. “Thank you.” He whispered. Joyce tried the most reassuring smile she could muster. The moment would have been nice had the lights not immediately flickered. Joyce shot up as Lucas tried to make a joke. “You got faulty wiring in here or something?”

“No. Never have.”

Lucas’ eyes widened. Joyce turned back to him.

“It’s nothing, right?” He asked, panic setting in.

“Uncertainty is enough to say it’s something, trust me.”

“But how? You closed the one under Starcourt.”

“Eleven closed the one in the lab, but Starcourt still happened.”

Lucas paused.

“Oh my God.”

**MAX’S CAR AS SHE DROVE ELEVEN BACK FROM THAT AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITY**

As the pair drove down Mirkwood on their way home, they couldn’t help but look at the lab next to them. The facility reopened in 1986 and, as far as they were aware, was analysing the biology of the creatures from the Upside Down. So seeing the lights on was absolutely no problem. Unfortunately for Max, hearing El whisper “oh no” as she stared at the lab meant something bad. Looking to her left, Max watched as the lights of the lab flickered off and on. “Oh shit.” She mumbled, putting her foot on the gas and speeding back to the Byers home.

**THE REMAINS**

The remains of Starcourt were never properly cleaned out. The government had run out of uses for the Russian base long ago and nobody bothered to clear the remains of Starcourt Mall. That made the underground base a perfect place for Murray Bauman’s new bunker. He’d spent the last couple of years regularly making trips from one side of the facility to another, with the greatest technology he could get his hands on. He’d grown to love the old place where a friend was seemingly killed after some people had let out a beast which killed a good 30 people in a week, and he was pretty sure that nobody knew he was even here, which was nice. Until he received a message. In Russian. He listened intently to a voice that was alarmingly familiar saying just six words.

“Murray Bauman. You are in danger.”

“How do you know where I am?”

“I have been watching Murray.”

“That’s ominous. Why am I in danger?”

“The Gate. It’s been reopened.”

Murray’s eyes widened.

“What? Where? Who are you?”

“Meet me where we last saw each other, old friend.”

The transmission cut out. Murray sat in astonishment before everything clicked. He recognised that voice. A voice he had sorely missed for years. He jumped to his feet, knowing exactly where he had to go.

“I’m coming, Alexei. I’m coming.”

**THE STREETS OF HAWKINS**

“I hate to say this, Mike, but we know all of this.” Steve groaned from behind the teen.

“I know you do, but what else am I meant to say? I fucked up, big time!” Mike argued.

“Mike, Will told me that you were trying to tell him something as he left your house.” Robin said from next to Steve, causing Mike to visually cringe, even from behind. “What were you trying to tell him?”

Mike stayed silent.

“Mike?”

He sighed.

“I’m not ready to say.” He whispered, voice tight. Robin smiled reassuringly from behind.

“That’s okay. I know how you feel.”

Mike silently processed that information as Steve looked confused, before suddenly breathing out a long “oh.” Mike sniffed.

“I really didn’t mean to do what I did. I was just so… scared.” He choked out.

“I know.” Robin acknowledged.

“And now he’s never gonna want to talk to me again and it’s all my fault and I’ve broken apart the Party and Steve and Dustin’s friendship and I’ve fucked everything up.” He half-said, words occasionally coming through as sort-of sobs.

“Yeah. You’ve fucked up real bad. But ultimately you’re still friends.” Robin said.

“Are we? Because he left the Party.”

“You’ve been through worse.” Steve argued. “Much, much worse.”

Mike let out a wet laugh. “Yeah, we have. But not like this. Not like…” Mike trailed off and looked up, wiping his eyes.

“Mike?” Robin asked.

“Holy shit.” He whispered. Robin and Steve looked out of the windshield. In the distance, a slender monster stood in the road. It looked maybe 10 feet tall? With lanky arms, long claws and no face, Steve and Mike immediately knew what it was. Steve, being Steve, panicked.

“Oh fuck! Drive!”

“What the hell is that?” Robin shouted as Mike put the pedal to the metal. Steve locked eyes with her and she instantly gathered what it was. “Oh fuck.”

Something suddenly rolled over the top of the car as it quickly slowed down. They stopped and Mike stepped out.

“Mike! Mike get back in!” Steve shouted in protest. Mike ignored him. As he looked out, he watched as the monster stood back up. Nerve failing, he jumped back into the car.

“Is it dead?” Robin asked. Mike shook his head, started the engine and drove off, leaving the monster alone in the street.

“How the hell is it back?” Steve asked.

“I don’t fucking know!” Mike shouted. “I don’t know.”

Things had gone from awful to worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know some people aren't going to be massive fans of how Robin confronted Mike, but this was always the plan for their conversation. Robin's got that gaydar, so of course she was gonna realise that Mike had something very important to tell Will. Next time we see some development of these mysteries as well as the return of Will and Jonathan.


	6. Moving Towards the Pulsebeat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will and Jonathan go for a bite to eat.

“We need to find Hopper, he’ll know what to do.” Steve said as Mike practically drifted onto Randolph Way.

“No shit!” Mike shouted back, voice hoarse from crying.

“Great idea, but as soon as this is done with I want to talk to you Mike.” Robin chimed in.

“Priorities, Rob!” Steve argued, almost hyperventilating in panic. It was dark by now, which made the prospect of a monster stalking them all the more terrifying. They must have been driving in circles around the town for an hour by now, trying to formulate some sort of plan of attack. Just as they did so, however, something distracted them. A lights show further down the road at Hawkins High. Something was happening. “Oh God, what now?” Steve muttered as Mike put his foot through the floor.

**EARLIER THAT DAY**

Robin ended the call.

“What was that about?” Jonathan asked.

“Nothing, just… I think Robin knows something we don’t.” Will replied, putting the phone back in place.

“She always does, it’s really no surprise.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Will muttered. With what looked to be great pain in his eyes, he walked back to the couch to try and rest his bones. Jonathan sighed.

“Look, I know you’re in a lot of pain, but do you wanna go get something to eat? Mom and dad are probably gonna be home late, so let’s go out.” Jonathan gave him a reassuring smile that only Jonathan could give. For a moment, the pain fell from Wills face as it lit up.

“Where do you wanna go?”

“It’s up to you.”

Will thought long and hard before he knew exactly where to go. “Benny’s Burgers.”

Jonathan furrowed his brows. “Where El was?” Will nodded. “Why?”

“They do really good burgers there. And El stood up for me. I figure it’s a way of thanking her since I can’t do it in person.” That made Jonathan sigh.

“Christ, I forgot about her and Max. Is everyone going missing tonight?” He joked.

“Hope not, I’d hate to be on the other end of that.” Will joked in response, getting to his feet with a wince. Jonathan helped him to the car and the pair drove off.

**THE REMAINS**

As a figure walked off in the distance, Beth and Hopper looked through a destroyed window inside the ruined mall. Beths eyes widened. “Oh shit, who’s that?”

“Murray. He lives in the bunker.” Hopper said offhandedly.

“ _What_?”

“He’s a paranoid maniac, likes to be hidden, lives in the old Russian bunker.”

“Since when?”

“I don’t know, a year ago, maybe? It doesn’t matter. What does matter…” Hopper pointed out a different window, “is that.”

Outside, a troop of what seemed to be normal people were almost marching towards the mall. At the front of the group, a recognisable mop of silver hair stood out.

“Are they…?” Beth trailed off.

“They might not be Russians, but they’re bad.” Hopper responded, motioning for her to follow him into the ruined GAP.

“What do you mean?”

“The person leading that group is Martin Brenner, he used to run the lab.”

“The lab that Eleven was raised in?”

“The very same.”

“But, didn’t he die?”

“You ask El, she watched it happen.”

“So how is he alive?”

“How did the Russians figure out how to open a Gate? I have no idea.”

“So it might not be him?”

Suddenly, a voice echoed through the mall. “Search the building for anything that could indicate his abilities or any Upside Down materials.” It was unmistakably Brenner.

“No, that’s definitely him.” Hopper stood up and moved to the back of the building, Beth limping behind as they made a discrete exit.

“What the hell do we do? Call the government?”

“No, they’ll take a good week. We’d stop it before the people we need could receive the information that it’s occurring.”

“So we deal with it ourselves?”

“Looks like it.”

“So what do we do?” Beth asked again.

“Well, the first thing we should do is…” Hopper trailed off as he thought for a moment on what Brenner said. Then, he realised what it truly meant. “Will.”

“What about Will?”

“He’s after Will. He thinks Will has powers.”

“ _What_?”

Hopper sighed as he jumped into his stowaway car. “You know what to him yesterday?”

“Yeah. I, uh, I’m really sorry about that.”

“He’s handling it well. But, during the fight, all of the windows in the cafeteria were shattered. That’s kinda weird right?”

“Yeah…?”

“But when Eleven has had… moments, and when she had Flesh Spider piece pulled out of her leg, she’s been overwhelmed and shattered the glass around her.”

“And somehow Brenner caught wind and is now planning to take him for experiments.”

“Exactly. We have to warn Will.”

“Well where is he?”

Hopper looked at her incredulously.

“Oh, right. Obviously.”

Hopper sped away from the mall heading straight for his home, praying that Brenners men wouldn’t get there first.

**MIRKWOOD**

Will was ‘jamming out’ (his mom’s words, not his) as best as he could in his injured form as Moving Away from the Pulsebeat practically blew out the cars speakers. Jonathan looked up as they passed the lab, noticing that the lights were off. Quietly, he mumbled something about how they “must have shut early.” Looking back to Will as he enjoyed the music, Jonathan grinned. Maybe Will would recover faster than they thought. There was real hope.

**HAWKINS LAB**

“Why the hell are you making me do this?” Max groaned as she stepped out of the car. “I was going back to your place to get Hopper!”

“He’s not there.”

“Then let’s go get him!”

“We don’t have time. We need to go help these people or there’s a very real chance that they could die.” El argued, calm demeanour crumbling slightly.

“What the hell can we do?” Max asked. “We’ve got nothing to actually help out with.”

Eleven sighed and closed her eyes. With a flick of her hands, a layer of seemingly discarded tarp stuffed behind a section of the building in disrepair after the events of ’84. Then, a gun that Max could not name flew into El’s hand, followed by the sound of “catch” and the feeling of a gun in her own hands. Max looked up at El in astonishment.

“Your powers are back?” Max stage whispered.

“Barely. Follow me.” El started walking into the building. Max jogged along to catch up. “Me and my dad stashed these after the building partially reopened, before I had anything at all. Then, a few months ago, something happened which allowed me to start using my powers again, but they’re super weak. That’s about the most they can do.” El explained further, motioning for Max to follow her through the building to the basement, where they could hopefully figure out some way to deter whatever was attacking. The lights in the building flickered, giving the pair mere moments to see any incoming dangers before they attacked. Sticking close to the wall, and each other, they slowly made their way to the basement, surprisingly having no encounters with people or creatures. With every second that passed, the tension in their chests tightened until they entered the bottom of the building: the breaker room. El grinned. “Perfect.”

“Do you even know what you’re doing?” Max asked, standing guard at the staircase.

“No, but what’s going to hurt them too much?”

“A lot!” Max shouted.

“Are you sure?” Eleven asked, pulling down a half pulled lever, turning on the buildings lights. “They screwed up the switch.”

“ _What_?”

“I know, right!” El laughed.

“Oh my god.”

“Now, let’s get out of h…” El trailed off as the lights turned back off. Pulling the lever up and down again. The lights remained off.

“Uh oh.”

A shout echoed through the building, followed by gunshots. The power had gone down, so the building was in emergency lockdown and, judging by the sounds upstairs, something was in the building with them. They couldn’t get out.

“Shit.” El whispered.

**BENNY’S BURGERS**

“I feel like this crappy town is finally getting back to normal.” Will said through a smile and a mouthful of fries.

“Yeah?” Jonathan said, smiling himself.

“I mean, other than… this,” Will motioned to himself, “I feel pretty good about Hawkins’s future.”

“Hey, there’s nothing wrong with you.” Jonathan said in an attempt to comfort him.

“Not me, the people that beat me up.” Will chuckled hoarsely.

“Oh, yeah that’s not a great part.”

“But there’s nothing weird going on in the town now, everything is really over.”

“Yeah. It is.” Jonathan grinned from ear to ear. He bit into his burger and savoured the flavour. Until the radio caught his ear.

"This is Officer Phil Callahan of Hawkins police station issuing an emergency radio broadcast. William James Byers, goes by Will, is wanted on suspicion of the murder of James Dante. Any information on his whereabouts must be given to police as soon as possible, else charges could be pressed. That's all, enjoy your day?" And the radio switched back to the music playing prior. Will and Jonathan turned from the radio to each other as Benny's brother, Henry, turned to the pair.

"Run!" Jonathan shouted, jumping up and picking up his brother in a bid to get him to the car and escape. Henry ran behind as well, barely missing the two as they hopped into Jonathan's car and drove off as fast as possible. Henry ran back into the building and picked up the phone.

"Hawkins police?"

"Officer Callahan speaking."

"I have information on Will Byers."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, uh, this isn't good. As a chapter, I mean, both in terms of writing and for the characters. What could possibly happen next? It's a mystery! This is also very much a two part chapter, so it should make a lot more sense after the next chapter.


	7. (I Just) Died in Your Arms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will goes to school, Murray eats shit and Joyce tears apart a metal rack with her bare hands.
> 
> *Contains death scenes, summary at the end.*

“Alexei?”

The man in front of Murray turned and grinned, bright as the sun as it set below the skyline.

“Murray!” He said with glee.

“What happened?” Murray asked with a matching grin, “I watched you die!”

“In Russia they make us learn to fake our deaths in case we get caught and shot by Americans, and I used that to escape and get help.”

“And you never thought to call?”

“I wish I could have, but it was never safe. It’s not now, but I need to warn you. There are Russians here.”

“How? We kicked them out!”

“You did, but they’re back. Do you keep up with local news?”

“Not really.”

“Well, that boy that was in the Upside Down sent out a massive shockwave akin to Experiment Eleven the other day, and Martin Brenner, who’s working with a Russian offshoot, is after him.”

“Oh my God, Will! I have to tell Hopper!”

“I’m not sure that’s-”

“Freeze!” Came an American voice, the first English word spoken in a while. It was uncomfortably familiar to Alexei, who cringed at the sound. “This is Martin Brenner, you’re surrounded!”

“Shit, Murray I’m sorry. I thought we were safe.”

“We have to run.”

“That’s a terrible idea!” Alexei argued.

“The safety of America and the world is at stake, we _cannot_ get caught!”

“What the hell do you propose?”

“I propose that we run!” Murray shouted and sprinted, before getting shot what seemed to be dozens of times by the surrounding officers. Running over, Alexei kneeled. Murray was alive. “That was a mistake.” He groaned, closing his eyes. Reluctantly, Alexei put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes in surrender. This hadn’t gone well.

**HAWKINS LAB**

Max and El slowly made their way out of the basement, barely making a single sound. Maybe, just maybe, they could find an escape route and find their way out. There was nobody around, just constant distant gunshots. They were shaking with every step and breath, fear coursing through their veins.

Meanwhile, in the parking lot, Will pressed the panic entrance button, allowing him and Jonathan to speed in and hide. Jonathan and Will stood there, terrified for Will’s life as they heard faint gunshots from inside. “Something’s happening in there.” Jonathan whispered. He turned to his right and recognised the car. It was Max’s. Realising that Max and Eleven were inside, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a spare set of keys, throwing them to Will. “Max gave these to me while you were out. Take her car and get the hell out of here.”

“What? What about you?” Will, asked, looking at his older brother in shock.”

“I’m gonna bail Max and El out of here.” Jonathan replied, moving forwards and smashing through the glass window. Panicking, Will ran to Max’s car, unlocked it and jumped in, speeding off without thinking about what the hell could be happening to Jonathan at that very moment.

He drove into town at incredible speed, drawing the eyes of the few people on the streets. They didn’t recognise him, he hoped, but they saw that he was driving at around 4000 mph and absolutely shitting himself until he tried to turn onto 8th Street. As he slid at a 90 degree angle, he was stopped, slamming into the corner of some shop, he couldn’t tell because of the fact he’d just slammed a car into its corner. As the engine steamed he stumbled out in pain, realising that there’s only one thing he can do. He fished in his pockets for coins and dragged himself to a payphone opposite. He put in a quarter and dialled the only number he could think of

**THE WHEELER HOME**

The phone rang, but nobody answered. The house was totally empty. Another ring, another silence. It repeated until the answering sound answered.

“Hi! This is the Wheeler household!” Karen’s voice echoed, “Sorry we missed your call, please leave a message after the tone.”

A beep.

“Hey, Mike.” Will’s teary, hoarse voice came through. “I, uh, I need help. Like, really bad. Jonathan, Max and El are in the Lab, Hopper is gone and I can’t find my mom, Dustin or Lucas. I know you don’t like me now and I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t need your help, but I do. I really, really do. So please, meet me at…” he paused, “school. As soon as you can.”

A click.

And a deafening silence.

Will sighed, stepping away from the payphone with a sigh. All he could do was limp his way to school in the vain hope that Mike would listen to his plea.

**MELVALD’S GENERAL STORE**

“Nobody’s picking up!” Lucas exclaimed as the lights flickered once more.

“Then they aren’t home. Which means…” she trailed off for a moment to pull apart a metal display, “we need to get out of here.” Joyce responded, holding up a rod from the display and throwing a second to the young boy behind her. Slowly, she crept to the front door of the store and pushed it open. The lights stopped flickering for just a moment.

“Is it gone?” Lucas asked quietly. Joyce turned her head, but before she could respond the lights flickered even faster than before. Behind Lucas, the wall began to split.

“Lucas!” She shouted, alerting him to the monster escaping behind. Lucas turned and promptly screamed, moving away from the wall. Joyce stepped in front as a Demogorgon fell to the floor and shrieked at a volume rivalling Lucas himself. Holding up the bar, she pushed Lucas back, a sign for him to run, but he refused, instead standing beside her to fight. As she moved to attack the creature, it looked around and sniffed. She stopped. The lights flicked off and on again. It was gone.

**HAWKINS HIGH**

Will walked past his car in the lot, smiling painfully as he saw that it was, thankfully, unmarked. He slowly dragged his leg into the building, which still had its lights on for some ungodly reason, and towards the most open part of the school, the gymnasium. Slowly, he stepped in. The room was silent until a pair of footsteps echoed in. Behind, a tall man with snow-white hair was walking towards him with a smile.

“Who the hell are you?” Will asked, moving back as best he could.

“I’m the man who saved your life. The name is Doctor Martin Brenner, I used to run Hawkins Lab.” He responded, voice cold.

“You didn’t save my life, you left me there to die. You faked my death.” Will argued with a snarl.

“And I let Chief Hopper and his mistress find you.”

Will flared up with anger. “Don’t you _dare_ insult my mother like that!”

“I’m here to help you, Will. You’re gifted, very much so, and you need guidance. Please, allow me to take you to a place with help.”

“I don’t need your help, Brenner.”

“You can’t control your abilities and now you’re paying the price.”

“I’m paying the price because you decided to send your people after me. I’m only injured this bad because of you.”

“No, it’s because you’re running away from what you did. Do you know where James Dante is?”

“No, but I assume you’ve got him buried somewhere that nobody will find. And you’re trying to pin it on me.” Will noticed that there was another person at the door, wearing some sort of Russian clothing and holding a very scary gun. “And because the U.S Government will have you executed on the spot, you’ve teamed up with the Russian Government.”

“Not exactly, this is a small militia, split off from Russian law. It seems that everyone in this room is wanted.” Brenner smiled wider, and a good 10 to 20 Russian soldiers stepped in.

“You want me to have no place to run to. You waited until all of my friends split off from me to accuse me of murder and corner me, offer me an escape. But I’m not taking it.”

“You don’t have a choice.” Brenner’s smile fell and the lights began to flicker. “You’re going to come with us, Will, or you’re going to face the consequences.” The floor opened and a claw reached out. “So, what will you do?”

Will stayed silent as the hand pulled out a body. A body he wished he’d never see again. It shrieked at him and he made a sound. A yell in response. He threw his left hand out and launched the armed men back to the wall as the monster ran towards him. Seeing that it was about to slash, he ducked to the side and grabbed it by the arm, sending a burning heat through the flesh. The monster screamed in pain and tried to force Will’s arm off, but he didn’t let go, instead moving his right hand to the back of the monster’s head and burning that too. The two screamed as one before a spark flew from Will’s right thumb, setting the monster’s head alight. It then ran in a panic, moving like a headless chicken – on pure instinct. The net was set alight as it ran just below. The shrieks, flashes and fire was causing a massive mess. Will only realised that when Mr Clarke, who had started at the school the year after the Party, walked in, having seen what was happening, and shouted. Moving past the near unconscious men on the floor, Scott ran up to Will with concern in his eyes.

“What the hell is going on in here?” He asked.

“The monster…” Will huffed, “it’s what took me… when I… went missing.”

“But you were just lost in the woods.” Scott argued. Will shook his head.

“No. Do you remember what you told Mike, Lucas and Dustin about the fly and the acrobat?”

“On the tightrope?”

“That’s the one. Well,” he pointed to the Demogorgon as it panicked and sank back into the ground, disappearing from the room, “that’s the flea. And I was the acrobat, who suddenly got turned into some horrific flea-acrobat hybrid.” He laughed to himself.

“Oh my God.” Mr Clarke whispered. Then he smiled. “Well, it’s clear you’re in danger, but if we can get you out of here, then-” he cut himself off with a groan. Will looked to his torso; a large shard of glass had been shoved through. The man collapsed into Will’s arms, revealing Brenner behind him with an uncomfortable smile. Scott huffed in pain and fear as he and Will sunk to the ground.

“Mr Clarke? Mr Clarke, stay with me.” Will whispered as the life slowly drained from Scott’s eyes. “Come on, stay with me now.”

“He’s not going to survive, Will. Come with us, now.” Brenner interrupted as his Russians got to their feet.

“No!” Will shouted. He was on his knees, cradling Mr Clarke’s head in his hands.

“You’re strong, Will.” Scott whispered. “I wish I could’ve seen your future.”

“Don’t say that, I’m gonna help you.”

“So brave.” Scott laughed weakly. “You and the Party always were. And I know that you aren’t all the best of friends now, but it will pass. Like all things. Like music fads, and people.” With a smile he locked eyes with Will. “And even teachers.” He laughed again. “Be strong, Will. Be a hero. And kill those fucking Russians.” With one last look at one of his best students, Scott closed his eyes. Will put a hand to his chest. It fell. And he waited for it to rise. But it never did.

“No…” he whispered. “Mr Clarke, wake up! Wake up!” He shouted, before standing and turning to face Brenner. “You’ve fucked yourself real bad this time.” He said. His eyes flickered with electricity, and he held out a hand, sending a blast of lightning into Brenner’s chest and shooting him back towards the wall. The Russians opened fire, but Will simply stopped the bullets in mid air and made a run for the door. In front of him, a hoard of familiar dogs stepped out and opened their faces, moving to attack, but Will dodged them and limp-sprinted to the front of the school. His nose was like a waterfall as he tried to wipe away the blood, but couldn’t seem to stop it. There was nobody out the front of the school, so he stood his ground. He was going to kill some fucking Russians. He shot bolts of electricity at the unfortunately large dogs running at him, frying their flesh instantly. As the dogs thinned out, the people increased. He shot one Russian with a bolt of lightning, knocking him out, before picking up a brick behind another and slamming it into the back of his head. As he made to attack a third, he felt a bullet enter his ribs. He fell to the floor and groaned. The reality sank in, he was being shot at by Russians. He had to run. He scrambled to his feet and ran out of the front gate, only to be nearly run down by a car. The car stopped and he looked into the windshield. Mike was in the drivers seat. They locked eyes.

“Get in!” Mike shouted from inside and, without hesitation, Will opened the passenger door and realised that Steve and Robin were in the backseat. Without closing the door, Will shouted two words.

“Fucking drive!”

The door slammed shut and Mike sped off. “Get the hell out of town, Brenner and the Russians are after me!” Will shouted. Mike wordlessly obeyed.

“Holy shit, what?” Steve said from behind.

“That explains the Demogorgon in the road.” Robin said. Mike turned a corner and realised that there were no Russians behind.

“We’re not being followed.”

“We will be.” Will responded. The car fell into silence, bar the music on the radio.

Nick Van Eede’s voice echoed through the metal box. “I, I just died in your arms tonight. It must have been something you said.” A tear streamed down Will’s cheek and he sniffed as he turned the radio off.

“What’s wrong with the music?” Mike asked, turning with furrowed brows. Will turned back and stared into his eyes. Without words, Mike realised that Will had seen something back there, in the school. As always, this was fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're all having a good holiday season! Sorry about how this chapter ends, but things will get better.
> 
> Murray meets Alexei but the two get caught by Brenner and his team. As he tries to escape, Murray is shot. Alexei surrenders.  
> Will and Jonathan arrive at Hawkins Lab. Jonathan realises that Max and El are inside and rushes to help, giving Will a spare set of keys to Max's car. Will takes the keys and drives off.  
> As he drives into town, Will crashes, taking the car out of action and further incapacitating his body. He limps to a payphone and calls the Wheeler home.  
> Nobody picks up.  
> Lucas and Joyce prepare to fight the Demogorgon, but before they can it disappears, leaving the store in disarray.  
> Will arrives at Hawkins High and makes his way into the gymnasium where he meets Brenner. The two fight before Brenner brings in a Demogorgon. Will knocks away Brenner and his Russians and sets it alight, alerting the attention of Mr Clarke. Will explains what happened when he was 12. The Demogorgon disappears into the ground.  
> Mr Clarke gets stabbed by Brenner. He tells Will to kill some fucking Russians and dies.  
> Will runs outside, kills some Demodogs and runs into Mike, Steve and Robin. He jumps into the car and recognises the song. It reminds him of Scott Clarke's death and turns it off. The end.


	8. Don't Stop Me Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will goes on a road trip, Hopper almost has an aneurysm and Brenner becomes a Batman villain.
> 
> Contains swearing and a vaguely graphic description of a dead body on the final line.

It wasn’t until they’d driven for another hour, just as they approached Lafayette, that anyone spoke again. It began as Mike cleared his throat.

“So, uh, what happened?” He asked quietly, side-eyeing Will as he drove.

“Why the hell do you care?” Will asked, voice full of venom.

“Because you’re my friend.”

“The sort of friend you’d out to an entire town before setting two dozen 17 year olds on?”

Mike paused.

“I thought so.” Will added. Silence fell again for a moment until Steve piped up.

“I care.” He said quietly from behind. Will sighed and relaxed his shoulders. He knew that now was not a time to be annoyed at Mike for what he did, they had _much_ bigger fish to fry at this point, but he couldn’t let it go. But, reluctantly, he told the story for Steve and Robin.

“After I talked to you guys, Jonathan and I went out to get a burger at Benny’s when that radio broadcast went out.”

Mike furrowed his brow. “What radio broadcast?”

“The one where I was accused of murdering James Dante.”

“James Dante’s dead?” Mike asked in shock, eyes widening as he drove.

“Who’s James Dante?” Steve asked.

“You killed a guy?” Robin tagged on.

“Apparently, a bully from middle school, and no. I’m being framed.” Will said, frustrated already.

“By who?” Mike asked tentatively.

“I don’t _fucking_ know!” Will shouted. “But it’s probably Doctor Martin Brenner, you know, that guy that you told me was mauled to death in front of you, and his Russian offshoot who are trying to kidnap me and use me like Eleven because of my powers!”

The car fell silent again.

“You have powers?” Mike asked, finally taking his eyes off the road and turning his head to Will, just for a moment.

“Yes, Mike, I have powers.”

“Like El’s?”

“Some of them are, I guess.” Will sunk into his seat. “It’s not important. Me and Jonathan drove to the Lab, but Eleven and Max were in there shooting shit, so he gave me a spare set of keys to their car and ran in.”

Mike moved to interrupt again, presumably to ask about El and Max. Will stuck a hand up to stop him

“So I drove into town and crashed their car, which was when I called you but you didn’t pick up.”

“You called me?”

“Yes.” Will was getting exasperated.

“We probably weren’t there by that point.” Robin pointed out. Mike breathed out in realisation and motioned for Will to continue.

“I walked to the school, entered the gym and got accosted by Brenner and at least ten Russians. Then they set a Demogorgon on me-”

The other three froze, causing Will to look around confused. “What?”

“We ran over a Demogorgon like an hour before we picked you up.” Steve said.

“And you didn’t go and tell Hopper?!”

“He wasn’t there! And we couldn’t just go up to officer Powell and say ‘Hey man you don’t know what this is but we just ran over the ten foot tall monster that kidnapped Will Byers in 1983.’” Mike defended.

“Whatever. Anyway, I set the Demogorgon on fire, knocked out some Russians, took a moment to breathe and then-” His breath hitched. He breathed in, and out. “And then Mr Clarke walked in. And he rushed to me and asked if I was okay. I told him what happened and he smiled. He reassured me of everything, offered to help me out and then…” he trailed off. Mike realised that this was what Will saw in the school, but he didn’t want to believe it.

“Will.” He almost whispered. “Don’t tell me what I think you’re gonna tell me.” He looked over and Will had his head buried in his hands.

“Brenner… he…” He couldn’t bring himself to say it. Every time he closed his eyes he watched as blood splattered all over his teachers chest, watched as the life faded from his eyes.

“Oh my God.” Robin whispered from the back seat, hand over her mouth.

“Yeah.” Will breathed. “He told me to kill some fucking Russians, so I ran outside, lightning-ed some Demodogs, because of course the Russians have Demodogs, and then lightning-ed a Russian. I hit one with a brick and then I...” he paused as he put a finger to his rib, noticing that it was wet. The memory flooded back as the pressure caused immense pain. He half groaned, half screamed as the others looked at him terrified. “And then I got shot.” He explained.

“You got _shot_?!” Steve exclaimed.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Mike asked.

“I forgot.” Will groaned.

“You _forgot_?” Robin repeated.

“I had a lot on my mind!” He defended weakly.

“We need to get you to a hospital.” Mike said, preparing to move towards Franciscan Health East, but Steve stopped him.

“Are you crazy? He’s just been accused of murder, and if we say he was shot by Russians working with a dead man and a group of monsters from another Universe then they’ll lock us all up in the insane ward. We’re gonna have to sort this ourselves.”

“Well, Steve, do you happen to know anyone who we could tell the truth to and who may also happen to know how to get a bullet out of someone’s- Oh my God I know someone.” Mike interrupted himself, a lightbulb almost appearing straight out of his head.

“Who is it?” Robin asked.

“Someone El met in Chicago. I don’t know where she is but, if we can find a picture of her in the warehouse she used to live in, Will might be able to find her.” Everyone was incredibly confused as they stared at Mike.

“El went to Chicago?” Steve asked, dumbfounded.

**HAWKINS POLICE STATION**

Hopper and Beth stumbled into the police station together, having spent a long while trying to find Will to warn him and also figure out why they wanted him. They’d given up and headed back to the station to start writing things down. However, they were interrupted when Phil Callahan jogged over and asked for Hopper.

“What’s the problem?” He sighed.

“It’s about Will. A pretty high ranking government official came in here and made us issue a radio broadcast about him.”

Hopper went grave.

“What did they say?”

“Didn’t you hear?”

“No.”

“Hop, Will killed a kid.”

His heart stopped for a moment, so Beth stepped in.

“Who was the guy?”

“I didn’t catch a name.” Callahan admitted. Hopper’s eyes went red with rage.

“You broadcast a message about my son across this entire town, accusing him of _murder_ right after what happened yesterday and didn’t even ask for the name of the guy who told you about it?”

“He pulled a gun on me, I didn’t know what to do.”

“Oh my God.” Hopper sighed.

“What did he look like?”

“He was tall, maybe 60 years old, snow white hair.” Callahan gave them enough information to freeze. “We got a call from Benny’s Burgers, apparently he and Jonathan fled the scene as soon as the news came out. Then there was a car crash on 8th Street and now people are reporting gunshots from Hawkins High of all places.”

Just then, two more people burst into the station.

“Hop! Where were you?” Joyce gasped as she and Lucas collapsed through the door. She looked, confused, at Beth for a moment, but said nothing.

“I was working a case, code R.” He said, nodding to Callahan.

“Oh, great, because Lucas and I just ran into a code DG in Melvald’s.”

“ _What_?” He shooed Callahan out of the room and took Beth, Joyce and Lucas to his office.

“What’s she doing here?” Lucas asked, nodding at Beth.

“I’m Beth Wildfire. I was hiding in Starcourt when that Mind Flayer thing happened. I, uh, know everything.” She stuck her hand out for Lucas to shake, which he did. Lucas furrowed his brow as he did so.

“Huh. Beth Wildfire. I know you from somewhere.”

“Well I had a pretty well known soc-”

“Hello?” Hopper interrupted. “We need to focus, because there’s a Demogorgon in town, as well as Russians who are working with Doctor Brenner to frame Will for murder.”

“They’re framing _who_ for murder?” Joyce asked in disbelief.

“I watched Brenner die, it can’t be him.” Lucas said over the top.

“I thought the Demogorgon was dead.” Beth added to the pile of questions needing answers.

“There’s more than one Demogorgon, there was one in Russia while I was there.” Hopper explained. “Brenner threatened my men into sending out a radio broadcast accusing Will of murdering a kid. Meanwhile, nobody knows where the hell anyone else is. Have we kept tabs on Jonathan? Max? El? Mike? Dustin? Steve? Robin? Hell, does anyone know where the _hell_ Will is?”

Just then, the office door burst open.

“Chief!” Dustin huffed. “I can’t find anyone in their homes and I think I heard people accusing Will of killing James Dan…” he trailed off as he noticed Joyce, Lucas and Beth.

“James Dante?” Lucas asked.

“Yeah, apparently.”

“Holy shit.” He whispered.

“Whoever it is, we need to find Will and get him the hell out of Hawkins before it’s too late.” Hopper said like a military officer in some crappy B-Movie that doesn’t know how to be unique.

**THE BACK OF A RUSSIAN VAN**

Alexei looked up as the doors opened, the far too upbeat Queen song stopping as they did, not relieving the pressure on Murray’s wounds. In the doors was Martin Brenner, with a pained smile on his face. Seeing him in light for the first time in a while, Alexei realised something. The burns covering half of his body, with one side of his face almost black from the burnt skin. He huffed with a small amount of humour and spoke English for the first time that day.

“He beat you this round, huh?” he smiled knowingly, but got no response from Brenner, who ordered he and Murray to be dragged out of the van. They were in a facility somewhere, probably underground, that looked uncomfortably similar to the base under Starcourt. Murray groaned as he was moved, but was noticeably alive, so that was nice. Alexei couldn’t help but wonder where the hell they were.

Directly above him, on the surface, Scott Clarke lay still, bloody glass surrounding his body, as the lights flicked off and on a single time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh what joy, the return of Scott Clarke's dead body.
> 
> Have a happy new year everyone!


	9. With or Without You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eleven, Max and Jonathan meet up while Mike and Will share a room.
> 
> Contains lots of bad language and homophobic slurs.

“Eleven? Max?”

Jonathan was moving slowly through the compound, yet to come across any unwanted attention. He made his way to the one place that he hoped would be empty, and, thanks to the luck of this God awful town, it wasn’t. Hopper had taken him and Nancy to see the remains of the Gate shortly after he got back from Kamchatka, and to his relief it was sealed, bringing closure to a part of his life that he’d long thought over by now. So it was a shock, and a real emotional blow, to exit the elevator and see a giant gash in the wall surrounded by vines. He felt as if it was 1984 again, and he wished he could reach over and grab Nancy’s hand. Sometimes, when he was alone, he remembered her. He missed her. However, he held strong and tightly gripped the gun he’d grabbed from an unfortunate security guard and stepped into the room, hopping over the broken glass barrier to see the giant hole. The tunnels below Hawkins were back in business from the looks of it. But there was an elevator that was suspended from four cables. It had descended, probably about halfway, and if Jonathan squinted he could see a gun poking out. If he listened closely, he could hear two familiar voices talking.

“Max, I can’t.” El whispered, collapsing onto the floor of the elevator with a groan.

“El, you’re the only one who can.” Max encouraged, dropping to her knees next to Eleven. She tried to scoop up the girl, lifting her head from the floor.

“No. There are others. I need them.” El whispered again. She looked at Max and passed out, totally exhausted.

“Shit.” Max whispered. She stood back up and shouted for help, looking carefully for any Demodogs, or anything worse. A shot took down a dog to her right, but also knocked her back slightly. Her back slammed into a button on the elevator and slowly she started to move back up. “Oh.” She said to herself.

At the top of the hole, Jonathan was stood, confused as the elevator rose. Soon, he saw the unconscious girl on the floor and the panicked ginger trying to pick her up. He moved in to help. “Jonathan?” Max asked.

“Yeah. What happened?”

“Her powers aren’t strong enough to close it and now she’s passed out.”

“She has powers again?”

“Yeah. But they’re really weak. We need to get her out of here and do something to stop the monsters from escaping.”

“Well the building is on lockdown, so if we can somehow board up the broken glass out front we should be safe, at least until the building starts to overflow with beasts. I’ll carry her, you make sure we don’t get got.” Jonathan said, taking El over his shoulder with a surprising about of strength. With that, they moved to get out.

**MOTEL 6 ELK GROVE VILLAGE, ILLINOIS**

“Are you sure we only have 43 dollars between us?” Mike asked with a groan, shoes sticking to the floor of the hallway.

“Why would we be carrying money with us?” Steve asked. “Rob and I were at work and Will is on the run from an offshoot of the Russian government.”

“I’m just saying I wish we had enough money for another room.”

“Yeah yeah, keep walking dickbag.” Steve sighed. He tossed Mike a set of keys. “You and Will are bunking.”

“Do you not know what happened on Monday?” Will asked, eyes wide.

“There are bigger things going on now. Go sleep, we need to find that Kali woman tomorrow.”

Will stopped as Mike reluctantly put the key into their door. He looked between Mike and Steve, huffing as he followed Mike into their room. The door closed behind him and immediately the stench he could only describe as that of a long dead corpse entered his nose. He reflexively clenched his eyes shut and covered his face with his forearm as he gagged strongly.

“Good to know I’m not the only one.” Mike said with a grimace. Will didn’t say anything, instead moving to their bathroom. It was small, but a fortunate relief from the painful smell of the main room. He stripped down to nothing and warily turned on the shower, stepping inside with a breath out, relaxing slightly.

Mike was sat on his bed as the door behind him opened. He turned around and watched as Will, wearing just a towel around his waist, grimaced again from the smell. “Oh my God!” Mike said, panicked as he looked away embarrassed. “Aren’t your clothes in there?” He asked, pointing towards the bathroom. Will’s cheeks turned red and he dipped back in.

“Oh, sorry I’m used to getting new clothes after a shower.”

“Don’t worry, just…” Mike waved his hand. “Go.” He chuckled quietly. The door shut and, within a minute, Will stepped back out with another grimace. He slipped shoes onto his feet and moved to his bed, slipping in with a sigh. Mike followed suit, and made his way under his own thin, vaguely white sheet. He stared up at the roof in the silence between them, before he quietly began to speak. “Will?”

“Yeah?”

“About what happened…” Mike trailed off at the sound of Will’s sigh.

“Can we not do this right now?” He asked, pain and anger clear in his quiet voice.

“I need you to know that I don’t hate you.” He turned and saw that Will was facing away. “I could never hate you.”

“It sure seemed like it when you told me that being gay wasn’t normal.” Will spat.

“I know.”

“And I think the idea was solidified when you told everyone in the school, not to mention when you tackled me to the ground, beat on my face and requested help from the few dozen people surrounding us.”

Mike was silent for a long while. “I’m sorry, Will.”

“That’s not going to be enough Mike. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t about to be kidnapped and experimented on by a psychotic old man, but it was that or hang out with the guy who almost killed you two days ago just after ruining how the town saw you so that he could get the shittiest funeral possible.” His voice was getting strained. Mike sat up and crawled out of bed.

“I need to show you something.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

Mike grimaced and let a tear silently drop before grabbing the room keys from a small table next to his bed and heading out to his car. He opened the trunk with one thing in mind: The portfolio.

**SUNDAY**

Okay, maybe not fuck that faggot. As much as he hated to admit it, Mike wanted to _fuck_ that faggot. But he was pissed. Really, really pissed. As he poured himself another drink, an idea came into his head. A really cruel idea that would make things between the two even. Dialling the number he needed, he pressed his face up against the phone until a voice came through.

“Hello?”

“Hi Mrs McCorkle, it’s Mike.”

“Oh hi Mike! How’s the family?”

“They’re visiting Nancy in England, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you if I wanted to.”

“Aw I heard about that, what a shame, I hope she gets better. I assume you wanna talk to Greg?”

“If you don’t mind?”

“Of course not hon.”

There was a moment of quiet before Greg arrived. It was Mike’s last chance to back out. He didn’t take it.

“Mike? Why’re you calling?”

“Why is your mom up?”

“Touché. What’s up?”

“Will Byers is a flamer that wants to suck my dick. Share it.”

“Dude, _what_?” Greg laughed down the line. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah man, he just told me.”

“Holy shit, I knew he was a fag but he wants to suck _your_ dick?”

“I know. Spread the word Greg, let’s expose him for the faggot he is.”

That’s the last thing Mike remembered.

**MONDAY**

Mike woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, no doubt induced by the previous night’s antics. He didn’t quite remember what he’d done but he knew it was bad because he was in the basement with an empty bottle of whiskey not too far and a portfolio of everything Will had ever given him bundled neatly into a binder. He flicked through the pages and things came back

“You’re friends with the Zombie _Fag_ as well.” Was the first thing he remembered.

Oh right. Will was gay.

“I’m in love with you.”

Oh fuck. Will was in love with him.

“Go get a new cleric.”

Oh shit. Will had left the Party.

“Let’s expose him for the faggot he is.”

Oh no. Mike had fucked up big time.

“I’ll see you on Monday.”

Wait. It was Monday. He checked the time, and fortunately he still had some spare. Without enough time to eat food, Mike rushed out of the house, jumped into his car and sped off to school, head pounding the entire time. There was one thing, though that he managed to pack. Just before leaving, he grabbed the binder and threw it into the trunk of his car, hoping that he would be able to show it to him. To show Will that he cared and that he loved him, to maybe negate the effects of what he’d just do- Wait did he just say that he _loved_ Will?

Panic set in as he started the day, and it didn’t leave. The constant bubble of fear in his chest was accentuated by the agonising hangover he was experiencing, and the lack of food sent him over the edge. He sat down at his bench with Lucas, Dustin and El for lunch and within moments someone stormed into the cafeteria.

“Mike Wheeler!” The voice shouted. It made Mike cringe. “Who the _fuck_ do you think you are?”

His heart burst, he couldn’t think. His body was on autopilot, and his body on autopilot was far too similar to when his dad was angry than he liked.

“Byers! How’s it going man?” He asked with a grin. He stood up, ignoring Lucas and Dustin eyeing him, already realising that it was, in fact, Mike who had outed Will.

“Don’t do that you asshole! What made you think it was okay to share what I told you?”

Shit. Okay. This was bad. Maybe he should tell Will that he was dru-

“Well, you were so open with me, I figured you wouldn’t mind sharing with everyone else.”

This was a bad idea. Fuck. Mike didn’t remember what happened next, only really zoning back in as he was swarmed by dozens of students, each of whom wanting to get a hit in on Will. He stood up straight and attempted to pull people off.

“Wait, no fuck! You’re gonna kill him!” He shouted as he pushed one guy away.

“The fag deserves it! Don’t tell me you _want_ him to suck your dick!” He responded sarcastically. He noticed that Lucas, Dustin, Eleven and Max were doing something similar before there was a deafening shattering sound behind him. Every window had broken at once, leaving the cool breeze to fill the building. Then, Jonathan arrived. Oh fuck. He had to get out of here, he’d already made a huge fucking mistake, talking to the Party and Jonathan would just make it worse. So he took his opportunity. He sprinted to the window and pulled his lanky frame through before sprinting for his car. He wiped his eyes dry and sped into the distance.

Later on, Dustin and Lucas came by to say that they know he didn’t mean to do what he did and that they’d work to bring the Party together again. Unlikely. Only he and Will knew what had actually happened last night, and that meant that they could never be friends again.

**WEDNESDAY MORNING**

He opened the door and immediately grimaced at the smell once more. He closed it and noticed Will wipe his eyes and quickly pretend to be asleep. He sighed with a fond, but sad, smile. “When you left that night, there was something I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t let me. I admit I fucked up, big time. But I was afraid. And in a moment of fear over losing my best friend, I was going to tell you my deepest secret. My family aren’t accepting of gays. Lesbians. Those trans people you mentioned. So I panicked. Because for years I’ve been trying to come to terms with the fact that I might be in that list of people. Since 1985, really, when we saw fucking Clue at the theatre.” He laughed. “I remember turning to you when Tim Curry and that mustard guy were having an argument about who’s in the house. You laughed. And you had the brightest smile in the darkest room. At that moment I had to stop myself from saying ‘oh fuck’ out loud. Because that was the moment I realised that I was in love with you.” He took a long pause. “That feels good to say out loud.” He smiled again. “You wouldn’t let me tell you on Sunday, and that caused me to act irrationally. I got…” he sighed, “ _really_ drunk and told Greg McCorkle of all people to tell people that you wanted to suck my dick. And then I woke up hungover and found this.” He put the binder onto Will’s bed. “And I panicked. When what happened on Monday happened, I wasn’t there. I’d zoned out. Blacked out. It was like when we tried making that horror movie in ’86, when we accidentally cut out half a scene. For me, I stood up and the next thing I knew thirty people were beating you senseless. So I panicked. Again. And I ran. I was a coward. I always was. And I know, you can’t forgive me. I certainly wouldn’t. But I want you to know how I feel about you, Will. How I’ve always felt. And how remorseful I will be until the day I die. You’re my best friend Will, and nothing will ever change that.”

He didn’t know when he started crying, but he had. With a wipe, he dried his wet face and got back into bed. The last thing he remembered before drifting off to sleep was a quiet “I love you.”

**HOPPER’S CABIN**

“I know where he is.” Eleven said, pulling off her blindfold. Even after all these years, she was still shockingly good at finding people in her Mindscape.

“Where?” Jonathan asked, turning the radio back to normal. It was playing some shitty U2 song, so he quickly turned it off entirely. Even he had limits.

“Chicago. He’s running from someone.”

“The government. They’ve accused him of killing James Dante.”

“The mouth breather?” El asked.

“One of the guys that beat up the Idiots regularly before we came along.” Max explained. “So yeah.”

“I think he’s looking for someone too.” She closed her eyes to think. “He’s looking for Kali.”

“Oh my God.” Max muttered. “Why would he look for her?”

“I don’t know!” El exclaimed, exhausted. “I have no idea. What matters is that he’s safe. Steve, Robin and…” she grimaced, “Mike are with him.”

“Jesus Christ.” Jonathan sighed. “Something’s happened. Something _really_ bad.”

“No shit, Jonathan. We need to sort it out. So, where the hell do we go?” Max said, also clearly exhausted.

“I think we need to sleep, then we need to visit the high school. That’s the first place he would’ve gone, probably looking for Mr Clarke.” Jonathan stood up and accidentally knocked the radio on again. “You two get to bed. Now. We need to be up early.” As he moved to turn the radio off, another broadcast was sent out. Now an all too familiar voice spoke clearly through the speakers.

“People of Hawkins, I have recently received news about the second victim of William Byers. Scott Clarke’s body has been found dead and the trail of victims will likely continue to grow. James Dante was supposedly a bully of Byers, and now his apparent favourite teacher has been found dead. Please contact the police if you have any information regarding Will Byers’s whereabouts, as he could be going for you next.” The broadcast stopped. Jonathan groaned.

“What the fuck does he think he’s doing? He’s talking like a shitty action movie!” He turned and saw that tears had filled Eleven’s eyes. She said one word.

“Papa?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long, hope the extra long chapter makes up for it. The long awaited confrontation between Mike and Will has finally happened! Sort of...  
> The ending is kinda shit but I had to put in the U2 song because I don't think it would have fit anywhere else.


End file.
